Pakistan, Jinnah (contd-6)

Jinnah was termed as Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, which he did not object but when in 1925 he was offered a knighthood  by Lord Reading, Jinnah replied : "I prefer to be Plain Mr.Jinnah." Even today very few is known about Jinnah's personal life although a great deal has been written about his vision, politics, and his role as a founder of nation. When he was a law student in London, he regularly did theatre and seriously considered acting as a profession."It is not a well publicized fact that as a young student in England it had been one of Jinnah's dream to play Romeo at the Globe. it is a strange twist of fate that a love story that started like a fairy tale ended as a haunting tragedy to rival any of Shakespeare's dramas."  The last letter written by Ruttenbai "Ruttie" Petit to her husband "J", as she used to call him is most interesting.

 

 S.S.Rajputana,

Marseilles 5 Oct 1928

  

Darling thank you for all you have done. If ever in my bearing your once tuned senses found any irritability or unkindness, be assured that in my heart there was place only for a great tenderness and a greater pain-a pain my love without hurt.When one has been as near to the reality of life (which after all is Death) as i have been dearest, one only remembers the beautiful and tender moments and all the rest becomes a half veiled mist of unrealities. Try and remember me beloved as the flower you plucked and not the flower you tread upon.I have suffered much sweetheart because I have loved much. The measure of my agony has been in accord to the measure of my love.

Darling i love you, i love you - and had I loved you just a little less I might have remained with you only after one has created a very beautiful blossom one does not drag it through the mire.The higher you set your idealthe lower it falls.
I have loved you my darling as it is given to few men to be loved. I only beseech you that the tragedy which commenced in love should also end with it.
Darling Goodnight and goodbye.
Ruttie
I had written to you at pariswith the intention of posting the letter here but I felt that I would rather write to you afresh from the fullest of my heart. R
This was the last letter written by Ruttie to Mr. :J."
 But Jinnah wrote little, and what he wrote was formaland a matter of fact.He wrote no autobiography or Diary, probably because he never had time to do so. He was reserved, taciturn, and secretive.       

Pakistan, Jinnah (contd-5)

Ratti and Jinnah loved each other till the end of their lives but unfortunately their marriage failed just after few years. Ratti was not happy with the fact that Jinnah was working over-time and was unable to give time to his family. By the mid-1922 Jinnah became too much busy in Indian politics and their relationship took a lowest possible level. Ratti, a cancer patient shifted to Bombay's Taj Hotel where she was taken care of by the hotel staff.  Kanji, her close friend, continued to be her constant companion. By Feb 18, 1929, she had become so weak that all she could manage to say to him was a request to look after her cats. Two days later, Rutti Petit Jinnah died. it was her 29th birth day.

Ratti bai's last letter
























Nikanama

She was buried on Feb 22 in Khoja Isnaashari Cimetary, Mazgaon, Bombay according to Muslim rites.Jinnah sat like a statue throughout the funeral but when asked to throw earthon the grave, he broke down and wept. that was the only time his friend mr. Chagla saw him wiping..  

Pakistan,Jinnah (contd-4)

Jinnah became a member on the sixty member Imperial Legislative Council. The Council had no real power or authority, and included a large number of un-elected Pro-Raj loyalists and Europeans.Still Jinnah was instrumental in the passing of the Child Marriage Restraint Act , the legitimization of the Muslim Waqf (religious endowment)and was appointed to the Sandhurst committee, which helped establish Indian Military academy at Dehra Dun during WWI.Jinnah joined other Indian moderates in supporting the British War effort, hoping that India would be rewarded with political freeedom.

At first Jinnah did not join Muslim leagur when it was formed in 1906, but he had sympathy of the demands of the muslims and joined the League on 1913. He became the president and formulated the Lucknow Pact ton construct abridge between the two. He also played and important role in the founding of the All india Home Rule League in 1916, alon with Annie basant, and Tilak. He demanded home rule in India as pf Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

In 1918 Jinnah married his second wife Rattanbai Petit (Ruttie)24 yers junior to him. She was the fashionable daughter of his personal friend Sir Dinshaw Petit, an elite parsi family of Mumbai.There was good deal of opposition from the Rattanbai's family but she defied all obstruction and was converted to Islamand adopted the name Maryam Jinnah.They had one daughter in 1919, namely Dina Jinnah.

Pakistan, Jinnah (contd-3)

After coming to India, Jinnah joined the Indian National Congress in 1896 which was the largest political organisation of the time.His faith in liberalism and evolutionary politics was confirmed through his close association with three stalwarts of Indian National Congress, 1. Pherozeshah Mehta, 2. Surendranath Banerjea, and Gopal Krishna Gokhale.
1. Pherozeshah Mehta (1845-1915):
Born in Bombay, on 4 Aug., 1845 and completing graduation,  he went to UK for higher study. He joined Lincoln's Inn in 1868.While in England he frequently met Dadabhai Naorojito mould his liberal outlook.Besides Telang, Badruddin and Pherozeshah ( the three bright boys of Bombay) he got acquainted with Ranade, Gokhale,Wacha, W.C, Banerjeeand bal Mohan Wagle.He founeded an English news paper, The Bombay Chroicle (1913).
Surendranath Banerjea (1848-1925) :
Sir Surendranath banerjee, properly known as Rashtraguru Surendranath was one of the earliest Indian Poltical Leader during the British Raj. He founded The Indian national Association in 1876 which was merged with Indian national Congress after its formation in 1885. He also founded Metropolitan institution an Ripon College and became an English Professor.He was elected congress president in 1883.




















Gopal Krishna Gokhale (1866-1915) ;
He took his B.A. degree in 1884 and joined the law college in Bombay. He was greatly influenced by Ranade, Dadabhai Naoroji and Pherozeshah mehta.

Pakistan, Jinnah (contd-2)

Dadabhai Naoroji (1825-1917)

Jinnah was an admirer of the Indian political leader Dadabhai Naoroji and he worked with other Indian students,in the successful campaign for him to become the first Indian to hold a seat in the British Parliament.

Dadabhai Naoroji helped lay the foundation of India's contemporary freedom struggle.He was a peerless patriot who defined the modern Indian Freedom Struggle.Born in1825 in a poor Parsi family in Bombay was brought up by his illiterate mother Maeckbhai who gave Dadabhai the best English education possible as Naoroji Palanji Dordi, father of Dadabhai, died 4 years after his birth.
On completion of his education he became the first Indian to become the Head Native Assistant master at the Elphinstone Institution, where he was a student, and went on to become the first Indian Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy.

Dadabhai entered the political fray in 1852. He strongly refused in 1853 the renewal of the lease  of East India Company, obtained for 20 years from British Govt, to manage India. India.    Surendranath Banerje (1848-1925) was one of the earliest Indian Political leaders during the British Raj. He founded the Indian National Association, one of the earliest indian political organisation that merged with Indian national Congress. During his stay in England he studied the works of Edmund Burke and other Liberal Philosopher.

Jinnah's reputation as a lawyer prompted Indian leader Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1858-1920)to hire him as a defence councilfor his sedition trial in 1905.He

founded Decan Education Society to import quality education to Indian Youth. He was a member of Municipal Council of Pune, of Bombay Legislatureand elected fellow of the Bombay Uiversityformed Home Rule league in 1916 to attain the goal of Swaraj.He was known as Father of Indian National Movement.

He joined the Indian National Congress in 1890.

He was arrested on the charge of sedition in 1906, after trial he was imprisoned for six years in Mandalay.

Pakistan, Jinnah (contd-1)

Emibai Jinnah, Jinnah's first wife

Jinnahbhai (1857-1901), father of M.A.Jinnah,was a prosperous Gujarati merchant, whose father, grandfather of M.A.Jinnah,Poonja Gokuldas Meghji was a Hindu Bhatia Rajput from Paneli Village in Gondal State in Katiawar. Jinnah's ancestors were Hindu Rajput who converted to Islam, probably in 18th century. Before going to England Jinnah was married to Emibai from Paneli village when he was 16and Emibai was only 14.marriage was forced on him by his mother as she was afraid of getting an English girl as  daughter-in-law due to the marriage of his son in England.But this marriage did not last long due to the death of Emibai within few months. The marriage took place on February,1892 and Jinnah left for England in November, 1892.

Jinnah in his student life in England, in Lincoin's Inn, became in three years at the age of 19, the youngest Indian to be called to the Bar of England. While he was a student he came under the spell of nineteenth-century British Liberalism, as many other future Indian Independence leaders. His education also included exposure to the idea of the democratic nation and progressive politics.He admired William Gladstone and John Morley. He was also admirer of the indian political leaders Dadabhai Naoroji and Sir Pherozeshah Mehta. He also took part in the successful campaign of Dadabhai Naoroji to become  the first Indian to hold a seat in the British parliament. By this time, Jinnah had developed a constitutional views which was exposed during his participation in Freedom Struggle of India.    

But he condemned the arrogance of British officials in India as also the discrimination practiced by them against Indians.His progressive ideas formed during his study in England faced a good deal of contradiction when he participated, practically, in the freedom struggle of India and put him into great difficulty in reconciling between the two.

During the final period of stay in England, Jinnah was pressurised to come back to india as his father's business was gradually going down. He became a successful lawyer and built a house in Malabar Hill, later known as Jinnah House.His reputation as a lawyer prompted Indian leader to hire him as a defence counsel in the sedition trial of Bal Gangadhar Tilak trial in 1905.  

Jinnah got close contact with Congress leaders such as Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Pherozeshah Mehta and Surendra nath Banerjee. 

Pakistan, Jinnah

There are confusions about the birth place and the date of birth of M.A. Jinnah. Two birthplaces have been mentioned in two different sources. Similarly, two dates of birth are recorded.
  Place of birth :
  1. Wazir Mansion, Karachi District of Lower Sindh.
  2. Jhirk.
Any way Jinnah was born in Sindh. Formerly, Sindh was in Bombay Presidency in British India.
  Date of birth :
  1. 20 Oct.,1875
  2. 25 Dec., 1876 (Jinnah's 1st Biography written by Sarojini Naidu. The latter date is officially accepted.

M.A.Jinnah was the 1st son of seven children of his parents'
Jinnahbai Poonja-Father of M.A.Jinnah  
Jinnah's other brothers and sisters are ;
Ahmad Ali,Bunde Ali, Rahmat Ali and sisters are;
Maryam,Fatima,Shireen.
Their mother tongue was Gujrathi, though they were came to learn Kutchi, Sindhi and English.
Jinnah was a restless studemt and studied in many schools in his boy hood days.
1. Sindh-Madrasa-tul-Islam in Karachi, 2. Gokal Das Tej primary school at Bombay, and finally 3.Christian Missionary Society High School at Karachi, where he passed matriculation at the age of 16, from University of Bombay.
Jinnah took his higher education in England and obtained law degree and worked in Douglas Graham and Company. He worked under Sir Fredrick Leigh Croft who left a lasting impression on Jinnah's life. Jinnah then practised in Bombay and got reputation there.